Writer-director Anthony Bawn’s Midnight in Phoenix follows the inadvertent adventures of a drag queen named Levi (Dueal Andrews), stage name Jax Diamonds, and a fan who is out on the town with her, Ezra (Richardson Pierre). Later that night, in a Phoenix gas station, they witness a robbery/murder. When they come away from the scene as the only survivors, they realize that no one will believe they were just witnesses. They assume that authorities will arrest them as suspects, given that they are young black men.
Levi’s performance in drag the next day is fraught with anxiety that only gets worse when images of both Ezra and Levi appear on newscasts as persons of interest in the crime, in fact being sought by the police. Ezra spirits Eli away from the club as they go on the run together. We ride along as they head for the border to try to escape a racist legal system in the U.S. As they make their way South, they find their bond strengthens and their loyalty towards each other grows.
At a little over an hour runtime, Midnight in Phoenix plays more like an episode of television than a film, but it’s a good episode. The strength of the piece is in the performances of Pierre and Andrews. Bawn keeps the camera and the action focused on them, and that is the right choice. One can overlook the amateurish aspects of the production when one is caught up in the characters and their story.
“…drag queen Jax Diamonds and admirer Ezra are implicated in a robbery/murder…”
The film opens with a voice-over piece about the ridiculous right-wing portrayal of drag queens’ supposedly heinous behaviors that poison the youth of America. The narration introduces the notion that what will be shown is an example of the world if they were really degenerate criminals. It’s meant to stage the film as a morality play about the absurd logical conclusion of drag queens being amoral perverts. Bawn, however, doesn’t follow through with that idea. Ezra and Eli are both good people who are put into desperate situations beyond their control.
The production quality is commensurate with the small budget. The cinematography is adequate, but the lighting is poor. This is a trend we’ve called out in low-budget films before, but there seems to be an aversion to light, and that makes it hard to keep the viewer’s attention. When you can’t see what’s going on, it becomes work to get invested in the story. Even night scenes should be lit well enough to see clearly. That said, there are a couple of stunning sunset/dawn shots of Phoenix. Another note is that the sound is uneven. It’s fine through most of the movie, but there are places where a character’s dialogue almost drops out, and the viewer must strain to hear it.
Despite its flaws, Midnight in Phoenix shines as a story of love, loyalty, and kindred spirits coming together to face adversity, punctuated with a couple of shiny drag performances.
For more information, visit Midnight in Phoenix at the Breaking Glass website.
"…shines as a story of love, loyalty, and kindred spirits coming together..."
